Earlier this month, the Church celebrated the feast of theTransfiguration, commemorating that special mountain top experience when Peter, James and John saw Jesus "transfigured" before them, his face shining like the sun and his clothes white as light. (Matthew 17:2).
Not only were they seeing a glimpse of their Lord in his glorified deity, the three disciples also were seeing a glimpse of their own future sharing in His glory! And ours too! In the book of Revelation, chapter 21: 22-23, we read John's account of our heavenly home: "I saw no temple in the city, for its temple was the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb." Wow - what a future awaits us!
But this transfiguration that awaits us is not meant only for our heavenly life. No, in this life too we are to allow Christ to change us more and more into His likeness. We call it sanctification. In the verses immediately preceding Matthew's account of the Transfiguration, we read Jesus' charge to his disciples: "whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it....for the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct..." (Matthew 16:24-25, 27).
The Transfiguration is all about change - our change once we're in heaven and our change NOW! Father Peter John Cameron writes that the Transfiguration is a gift of hope to all followers of Christ - that we can change. And often it is through the most wounded part of us, the part that we think we never will be able to overcome, it is through that gateway that we experience our own earthly transfiguration. For it is in our woundedness that Christ meets us, changing us not through our own strength but precisely through our weakness - more and more into His likeness... into His glory.
Do you remember the story of Father Damien? Born to a Flemish merchant and his wife, Father Damien felt a call to missionary life and in 1864 was sent by his religious order to Hawaii to minister on the main island of Oahu.
But he soon became aware of the tragic plight of a growing group of Hawaiians who were afflicted with numerous diseases brought to their islands by the merchants and sailors coming into their ports: syphillis, influenza, and worst of all, leprosy. To avoid the spread of that dreaded disease, the king of Hawaii ordered that all lepers be quarantined to the small remote island of Molokai, there to live out their earthly life in sickness, fear and poverty. Damien immediately asked his bishop if he could transfer to that island to tend to the spiritual and physical needs of the lepers - a sure fire death sentence. His wish was granted.
Damien arrived at the secluded settlement of Kalaupapa where 600 lepers lived. His first step was to build a church so that the people there could begin to worship again. But his daily life went well beyond priestly duties. He dressed the sores of the sick, helped them build their homes and beds, and even built their coffins and dug their graves. He grew to love these people and they grew to love him.
What at first was a morally deprived lawless colony of death was changed under Father Damine's leadership into a colony of life as grass shacks became painted houses and flourishing farms were organized and run. He restored faith and beauty to his flock and showed them that despite what the outside world told them, they were valuable. He restored their dignity and reminded them of God's love for them.
On a cold December evening in 1884, Damien soaked his feet in boiling water and noticed that he felt nothing. Self diagnosing that he now too had leprosy, he thanked God for allowing him to become like the people he loved - and he pushed himself even harder to build and organize his little community so that his parishioners could fend for themselves after his death.
Three years later, disfigured terribly, but loved immensely, Father Damien passed from this life to the next. Over 100 years later he was beatified by Pope John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict. For in giving up his own life for love of Christ and love of others, Father Damien had experienced his own earthly transfiguration. Through self giving love he had been changed into the beautiful man that you see in this picture. In fact, he had changed so much that he looked like... Jesus.
Can the world say the same of you and me - that we've changed, that we look like - well, like Jesus? If not, it's not too late - the island of Molakai is all around us with people that need our love and our care. In loving them, we will look less and like our old selves and more and more like Jesus.
Wow, you've changed...